


I Can('t) Handle This

by CastielFollowMe



Series: Single Dad Shiro Verse [87]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Creepy Stalker Crush, Gen, Keith keeps bad secrets, Panic Attacks, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 19:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11020419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielFollowMe/pseuds/CastielFollowMe
Summary: Keith has turned down many people before without really thinking about it, until someone takes it a bit too far after Keith rejects them.





	I Can('t) Handle This

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Stalker Anon here!! Dumb Tumblr, I sent a prompt where 16-17 year old Keith gets asked out and says no, and the person starts Stalking him. He wants to tell Shiro but he's also embarrassed and tries to handle it on his own, but then it all comes to a head. Sorry bout the trouble :,D Thank you!"

               When it came to dating, Shiro had feared for the worst as soon as Keith had become a teenager. He was well prepared on dealing with a hormonal, angsty teenager especially after hearing complaints from other parents. He was prepared to play the protective father who fought off any and all of Keith’s suitors, that threatened to deflower his innocent son.

               However, Shiro was pleasantly surprised when Keith didn’t date anyone.

               Not at 14 or 15, or 16, or even 17.

               Keith never once showed interest. Sure, Shiro had been witness to some (unfortunately adorable) crushes that Keith had harbored on people over the years. However, none of Keith’s crushes usually lasted and Keith had turned _down_ more people in three years, than Shiro had in his whole life.

               It wasn’t that Keith wasn’t attracted to anyone; rather he wasn’t interested in dating at the moment. Shiro could handle that.

               Shiro could definitely handle that.

               He decidedly ignored the small voice in the back of his head that whispered, _No Takashi Shirogane you’re going to need to let go one day and let him grow up. No…_

               Keith cared a lot less than his dad did about _his own_ dating life. At the moment he wasn’t interested, mainly because no one had really caught his eye in the way that made his heart flutter or his palms sweaty. A lot of people made Keith’s palms sweaty, actually. That didn’t mean that Keith was in love with a lot of people. No way.

               Recently, Keith had been wondering if rejecting every person was the way to go. Especially after the Carla incident.

               Carla was a sweet girl – emphasis on _was_ – and she was in several of Keith’s classes. She was cute and funny and always wore the prettiest dresses in school. However, Keith wasn’t interested in her besides an occasional conversation with her if they were ever partnered up. She certainly wasn’t someone that Keith had considered dating. So it was quite the surprise when Carla had asked him out one day after Math class.

               It was really embarrassing for Keith if he was going to admit it. Carla had ambushed Keith while he was still at his desk, leaning over so Keith couldn’t even escape out of the desk. She’d batted her eyelashes and smiled real big at Keith before asking the one question that had been on her mind for months. The one question that Keith had never considered.

               “How about you and I go on a real date? You’re a cute boy and I’m in the mood for something delicious.” She said softly and Keith swallowed.

               It was even more embarrassing knowing that _all_ of Carla’s friends were giggling like schoolgirls behind them and watching the entire scene play out. Keith’s heart was racing and his throat felt too dry. It was a few, long, agonizing minutes that was full of silence before Keith even spoke. By then, even Carla’s smile was starting to falter.

               “Um, I’m sorry Carla. I’m not – I’m not interested.” Keith said instead of saying yes, as Carla had expected. Of course, the girl was stunned and her jaw had dropped to the floor. The other girls had all stopped giggling and Keith took this as his cue to leave. In Carla’s surprised state, Keith was able to squeeze past her and dash out of the room without another word. Carla was left stunned and staring at the now empty desk.

_Keith had rejected her?_

               Meanwhile, Keith had practically sprinted out of the school. Just before he reached the doors, to where his friends were surely waiting, Keith tried to collect himself. He took a few deep breaths and nodded to himself before heading out the doors and towards his friends. _It’s fine. You’ve turned down people before. This is no different._

               All it took was some lame joke from Lance and a suffering sigh from Hunk before Keith had forgotten all about his incident with Carla.

               _Everything would be fine._

x.V.x

               Carla apparently hadn’t understood what no meant.

               For almost a week straight she’d cornered Keith several times. Each time, she’d flirted her way to asking Keith out again and again or hinting for Keith to ask her out. And again and again, Keith would politely decline and explain that he wasn’t interested. Each time, Carla was frustrated but always left Keith in a huff.

               Whenever Keith thought she’d give up she would come up with some other way to ask him out. Keith figured that she didn’t know what the word _no_ meant. It must be hard.

               One morning Keith found his locker full of paper hearts and tiny notes all in Carla’s handwriting. Each was about something that was cute about Keith. _Your eyes are gorgeous. Your laugh makes me so happy every time I hear it. I love the way you chew on your pen caps._ While this was all sweet, Keith was more concerned with the fact that Carla – or someone – had gotten into his locker without his permission. They’d invaded his privacy.

               Another day, a box of Keith’s favorite chocolates were sitting on his desk before class. This made Keith’s stomach sink and he threw the chocolates out after class when no one was looking. Only Lance, Hunk and Pidge knew what Keith’s favorite chocolate was and Shiro.

               More than once, one or more of Carla’s friends would corner Keith in the hallways or classroom and practically bully him into asking out their friend. All with fake smiles and taunting expressions they would demand to know why Keith would turn Carla down or why he was so cruel to break her heart. _You two would be so cute together! How can you be so selfish? Do you know how much you’ve hurt her?_ Each time Keith was saved by the bell or his friends and would escape without saying a word.

               However, the sick feeling in Keith’s stomach only grew when he found a note in his _backpack_ after school one day.

               _You look cute when you go for your runs at 7._

               Keith wondered how on Earth did Carla knew what time Keith took his runs. At home.

               “Hey man, you alright?” Keith blinked when Lance spoke up and a brown hand was waving in front of his face. He frowned at Lance and immediately swatted the hand away, earning a laugh from Hunk and Pidge.

               “What?”

               “You’ve been staring at your lunch for like ten minutes now. I know cafeteria food can be a gamble to eat, but you just gotta hold your breath and eat.” Lance shrugged, taking a bite of what vaguely looked like pizza.

               “Oh, sorry.” Keith murmured and looked back down at his food. Hunk leaned over and gave him a gentle pat on the back. Keith felt the tension start to drain from him.

               “It’s okay. You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.” Hunk smiled softly and Keith snorted. He ignored Pidge and Lance who had begun their own thumb war. “Anything you wanna talk about?”

               For a brief moment, Keith hesitated. These were his friends. His friends of over 13 years, who he trusted with his life. _You can tell them. They’re here to help you._ Keith briefly thought about telling them about the note from Carla. It was bothering him more than he wanted to admit and Keith didn’t want his friends to get involved in something that could be petty or pointless to some. _What if I’m just making a big deal out of this?_ Keith chewed on his lip. He didn’t want to be a burden to his friends.

               “It’s Carla.” Keith finally admitted.

               This caught Lance’s attention who lost the thumb war due to his loss of focus. “Wait, she still bothering you? Dude you need to tell her to fuck off.”

               “Lance!” Hunk scolded, rushing to put his arms over Pidge’s ears. “There are children present.”

               “Oh, fuck you.” Pidge rolled their eyes playfully and Hunk gasped, while Keith chuckled. However, Lance looked directly at Keith with a frown.

               “Seriously, you’ve turned her down, how many times? Like at least a hundred.” Lance cried and Hunk nodded quickly.

               “Probably two hundred.” Hunk added.

               “Yeah! The point is you’re not interested. She needs to let go. What’s she doing now?” Lance rolled his eyes and Keith hesitated with a lump in his throat. _Should I tell them about the note? Or is it really not a big deal and you’re just being annoying to your friends._

               “Um, she just keeps asking me after class.” Keith lied and bit his lip. Lance sighed dramatically and shook his head, accepting the lie.

               “Man, she needs to drop it. That’s just annoying and rude.” Lance said, causing Keith to smile. “You need any of us to go after her?” Keith was touched that Lance was offering, but he would never admit that out loud.

               “As if. I can take care of this pretty boy.” Keith snorted and Lance huffed playfully. “Don’t worry, I’ll try to talk to her today.” _Hopefully she’ll stop everything._

x.V.x

               _You look adorable when you’re asleep._

               This time it was a text message from an unknown number. With a picture attached.

               Keith almost threw up when he opened the blurry picture of his bedroom window, with Keith asleep in _his_ bed. The photo was obviously taken from outside, probably across the street and zoomed in. Without even wondering, Keith knew who the unknown number was from. It didn’t take a lot to put two and two together.

               “Hey bud, are you feeling alright? You’re looking a little pale.” Keith shut the message close as fast as he could when Shiro walked into the room. He shoved the phone under his pillow, looking up just in time to see his dad walking towards him. The whole time Keith’s heart was racing and his mind was running at a million miles per hour. He couldn’t believe that Carla had gotten his number. _Who gave it to her? Hunk or Pidge wouldn’t give her my number. Even Lance knew how important this was to me._

               “Um, yeah.” Keith lied through his teeth, causing Shiro to frown. Shiro put up his flesh hand to Keith’s forehead and Keith resisted the urge to flinch away. He couldn’t worry Shiro, not after everything that Shiro had done for him.

               Keith could handle this.

               “You feel warm. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Shiro asked and Keith almost broke at the look of concern in his dad’s eyes. His dad was always there for him no matter how little the problem was Keith couldn’t keep burdening his dad with his problems.

               Keith could handle this on his own.

               “Um, actually, my stomach’s hurting.” Keith said slowly. Shiro’s frown deepened but this time he brushed back Keith’s hair to stroke his forehead. Keith felt his dad begin to push him back down into the bed and under the covers and Keith felt awful. He knew he was running away from his problems. He wasn’t facing them, like how his dad would have in this situation. Keith was a coward.

               Keith couldn’t handle this.

               “You should stay home then. You look awful. How about you get some sleep and I’ll make you some light lunch?” Shiro said gently, causing Keith’s guilt to fester even more. He nodded slowly, unable to speak and his dad smiled softly. He gently pressed a kiss to Keith’s forehead before leaving Keith alone in his bed. His phone vibrated with another message.

               _I can’t wait to see you, cutie-pie! <3_

x.V.x

               Keith had gotten _seventy-five_ text messages in three days. Thirty of them were from the day that Keith had skipped school when he was “sick” and hadn’t showed up. The rest were constant messages from Carla throughout the day. Some were just streams of messages while others came with pictures Mainly of Keith when Keith wasn’t aware that his picture had been taken.

               Keith was on edge because of this all.

               He’d snapped at his friends and shut himself in his room from his dad. Everyone was aware of the sudden change in Keith’s mood and behavior but nothing could get Keith to admit what was happening.

               _Keith, where are you? You weren’t in your gym class today!_

Carla wasn’t in his gym class.

               _Keithy-baby I brought your favorite! Sukiyaki! :)_

               Shiro was the only one who made Sukiyaki for Keith.

               _Homey, why aren’t you answering my texts! You know who this is._

_I love you!_

_Keithy?_

_Keith baby?_

_Boo, you’re no phone when you don’t answer my texts._

_But you’re a cutie pie when you visit your dad’s work._

               The photos made Keith sick and he couldn’t even bring himself to open anymore even as his phone continued to notify him of a new message. Which was the reason for why Keith was curled up in the furthest stall of the bathroom, on the floor, hyperventilating and sobbing.

               Keith was scared.

               He was so scared and so _stupid._ He couldn’t handle this on his own. Why on Earth did he ever even think that he could handle this on his own. Keith had never felt so foolish in his life and now he was suffering for his mistakes. He couldn’t even begin to berate himself for how stupid that he had been. His friends could have helped somehow, his _dad_ could have helped.

               Keith’s phone vibrated once more and another sob built up in his chest. He knew that he should just keep ignoring it and that it wasn’t worth looking at but something was telling Keith to look. There was something pulling at him to look at this one message. So Keith did just that.

               _Your dad’s pretty cute. Maybe he won’t ignore me like you :(_

               Keith’s heart stopped at seeing the photo of his dad, in their front yard, gardening.

               Before Keith’s mind could catch up, his fingers were already dialing a number that he knew by heart and the phone was ringing. _Pick up. Pick up._ Keith squeezed his eyes shut feeling more tears fall down his cheeks.

               “Hello? Keith?”

               Keith sobbed again at hearing his dad’s voice.

               “Keith?! Keith, what’s wrong?” Shiro panicked into the phone and Keith’s entire body almost melted to the floor. _You’re not alone. Tell him._

“Dad, dad. She’s watching you too! She’s watching you.” Keith sobbed, breath coming out in short spurts.

               “Watching me? Keith, who are you talking about?” Shiro asked.

               “Her! Carla!” Keith cried as if it was making total sense.

               “Honey, you need to calm down. Please, I can hear your breaths from here. I need you to take big, deep breaths. In and out.” Shiro said softly. Keith could hear shuffling on the other side of the line, but he was more focused on trying to catch his breath. “Can you do that for me. Deep breaths in. And out. There you go, just like that. Once more.”

               Keith managed to mimic his father’s breathing though the tears still fell.

               “That’s it. Very good. Keep breathing, just like that. I’m on my way. Where are you?” Shiro asked and there was more shuffling on his side of the line. Keith hiccupped.

               “B-Bath-Bathroom. S-School-school.” Keith managed.

               “Very good. Okay, okay. Keep taking deep breaths for me. There you go. Stay on the line, alright? Deep breaths now.”

x.V.x

               “We…we didn’t realize it was this bad.” Lance mumbled, sick to his stomach after hearing from Keith and Shiro what had been going on with Carla. He felt like the worst friend in the history of the universe knowing that Keith had been so upset lately and none of them had helped him. “Carla, she never looked so off.”

               “None of us knew.” Shiro admitted. Keith’s phone was clutched tightly in Shiro’s hand and the only reason that Shiro hadn’t smashed it out of fury, was because this was the evidence that police needed against this _Carla_ girl. The girl who had been _stalking_ Keith.

               Stalking Shiro’s baby.

               Shiro wanted to throw up at knowing that his son had been hurting so much and was so alone in this nightmare. _Why had this happened to Keith? What had Keith done to deserve this?_

               “This isn’t fair.” Hunk whispered, looking over at their sleeping and exhausted friend.

               “No. It’s not.” Shiro admitted. “However, there’s nothing that we can do to prevent the past. He’s come to us now and all we can do is do everything we can to help Keith from this point on. But unfortunately, this is a lesson for everyone. If this every happens – _and I pray to god it never does for any of you -_  you tell an adult immediately. Your parents. A teacher. Even me if you’re comfortable with that. These things are serious and this is in _no way_ Keith’s fault but some people are sick.”

               Everyone was silent for a few minutes longer before Pidge spoke up. They were cuddled up against Keith’s side, not having moved once since they’d found Keith and hugged him. “We just have to be there for him forever. Every step of the way after this.”

               Shiro nodded, eyes bright with fierce determination. “Yes. This girl messed with the wrong family.”

_Keith would never suffer alone again._


End file.
